Pride
by ButterflyOfDoom
Summary: My own take on the BulmaVegeta gettogether. My muse is MIA, so on hold until I can duct tape him down.
1. Chapter 1: Pride

I don't own Dragon Ball/Z/GT. I'm not making money off of this.

The silly monkey. He'd nearly blown himself to Kami. He would have been so upset being dead while the others fought the androids. And what a Tantrum that would be! Bulma smiled, imagining the scions of Hell trying to deal with the enraged Sayijin. She added to that the irony of him reaching Super Sayijin while in Hell. Now that would be an upset Vegeta.

Bulma leaned back in her chair, losing her smile as she let the amusing line of thought dissipate. She should have realized he would train himself until he broke. She was the same with her inventions. She frowned. Vegeta had not been the one to break. Her machine had not held up to his efforts. Worse, it had incapacitated him by its explosion. She felt as if she had failed. And her pride had suffered a blow.

She leaned forward and went over her data again. Shrapnel from what was left of the Gravity Chamber gave her an idea of what forces her new design needed to withstand. She had doubled her projected figures. Not only would she need to accommodate Vegeta's growth in power, but doing the impossible once again would salve her wounded pride.

…

Vegeta was not pleased. The air-headed, blonde bimbo had arrived. He had learned that insults, hints, yelling, nor glaring would make Bulma's mother vacate any sooner than she so chose. And she was chatty today.

She went on about some neighbor's new hair-something and someone else's shoes while she briskly set out his Sayijin-sized portions of lunch. The table swung out over the infirmary bed groaned. He staunchly ignored her, picking up the first plate and gracefully wolfing it down. Why did almost everything on this damnable planet taste like chicken?

…

The coffee arrived, heralding Bulma's break. The coffee was accompanied with food, which she daintily engulfed. Then, sipping her coffee, she went over the latest modifications she had made to her design. The work crew outside had already started construction on a bigger base for the gravity chamber. She had six hours before they were ready for the component she was slaving over. She smirked. She'd have it done in two.

…

Vegeta was out of bed when breakfast was wheeled in. The cart came to an abrupt halt. He caught a small cauldron of oatmeal whose mass had failed to slow with that of the cart. The blonde pusher of the cart stared at him over the mountain of pancakes. Then she started to verbally worry over him about being out of bed. Vegeta Scowled.

…

Bulma was hanging upside down, working on a delicate column component, when her mother burst in. It took the ditzy woman a moment to locate her daughter. Upon doing so, she opened her mouth, and didn't shut it for the whole hour Bulma took to finish the component. Done, the genius swung down, walked around her mother (who was still talking), and drained what was left of her cold coffee.

Cutting her mother off, she patiently explained that Vegeta wouldn't get out of bed and hurt himself again until he was at least mostly mended, he was smart enough to know it was important to heal. He was probably just checking on himself or stretching a bit. No, she would not get some sleep. And would her kind loving mother please get her more coffee? She was out again.

…

Vegeta was glaring at the wall again. This little break had put him even further behind his rival. He would allow one more day of rest. Then he would be sound enough to start blowing things up again. Making himself relax, Vegeta Slept.

…

Bulma Worked.

…


	2. Chapter 2

Bulma waited as the computer whirred and beeped it's way through the program she'd written for it. She yawned hugely and reached for the printout. Highlighting several strings of data, she smirked. She'd worked on this non-stop longer than any other project before, but the Genius Bulma had done it again. No way he'd blow this one up… for a little while, at least. One or two manual tweaks to the system, and it would be done. She picked up a couple of tools she'd specially designed herself and tiredly, but triumphantly, walked out the door.

…

Like a Sayijin, the new Gravity Chamber had sprung up from the rubble fortified, Vegeta reflected. He inspected the new building in the pre-dawn light, warming up as he did so. Then he marched in, looking for work crews, or unfinished pieces, to yell about. If he was going to beat the Androids, the place had better be ready for him to start training immediately.

What he found was a grubby, blue haired, human female. She was fast asleep, hugging her tools, on the floor. He stared at her for a moment, his eyebrow raised in curious surprise. Even on Namekia she had been dressed up. She had always worn clean, matching clothes, done odd things to her hair, and added enticing smells to her own scent.

This female, sleeping the sleep of the dead, looked like she hadn't bathed or slept in weeks. And she wasn't even awake for him to smirk at. So he frowned thoughtfully, and carefully picked her up.

She mumbled something and snuggled into him, causing him to freeze. Both eyebrows raised, he regarded his bundle. She looked like any warrior, sleeping off exhaustion after being pushed to the limit. No one was there to see his slight smile as he flew her to her balcony.

He simply blasted the lock, kicked the door open, and went inside. Immediately, he was assaulted by traces of her perfume mixed with her unique scent. The room was also full of bright colors that were a shock from the colorless life he had lived. He froze, and then relaxed. So many things were different here, he pondered as he laid the silly woman on her big bed.

Without waking, she lazily protested the loss of warmth. He smirked, and then covered her with the comforter from the end of her bed. He paused a moment longer than necessary to study her, as if she contained the answers he sought. Then he was out the door, as if he had never been in the bright room.

…

She woke slowly, luxuriating in the softness of her bed. Upon becoming fully awake, she was displeased, as well as confused, to find that she was very dirty, fully dressed, and sleeping with grubby tools.

Then she remembered her 'mission' to fix the Gravity Chamber. She sat up triumphantly as she remembered splicing the very last wire.

Bulma got out of bed, grimacing at the work boots she still wore. Kicking off the boots, She headed for her bathtub, shedding clothing as she went. She giggled at herself; she must have been extremely tired; she didn't even remember the walk back to her room!

…

Vegeta trained.

…

Bulma was fully awake when she returned to her room, having enjoyed a long and cleansing bath. She was happily pondering what she would wear for her victory breakfast, when she noticed the balcony door was ajar. She shut it, only to have it swing partially open again almost immediately. Frowning, she examined the door, to find most of the bolt melted to the door, and the rest in a puddle on her balcony. The burn area was restricted to outside the door, and it was just enough to melt the lock. But for all that it was small and precise, it still looked just like a ki-blast.


End file.
